July 31, 2020 - 9:30am to 10:30am PDT
Online

Last November, news broke that the Internet Society had agreed to sell Public Interest Registry – the organization responsible for overseeing the .ORG top-level domain — to a newly formed private equity firm called Ethos Capital. After months of debate and widespread outcry from civil society and other stakeholders around the world, ICANN announced in May that it would not approve the transfer.

This process raised important questions about the long-term stability of .ORG for the thousands of mission-driven organizations around the world that depend on the domain, and about what safeguards are needed going forward to ensure .ORG is a safe, stable, and accessible platform for years to come. In this session, leaders from the #SaveDotOrg campaign will share insights from the fight to stop the sale, outline where things stand today, and open the floor for conversation around priorities and next steps for defending online civic space at the domain level.

  • Carolyn Tackett, Global Campaign Strategist, Access Now (Moderator)
  • Peter Micek, General Counsel, Access Now
  • Amy Sample Ward, CEO, NTEN
  • Cara Gagliano, Staff Attorney, EFF
  • Ephraim Percy Kenyanito, Senior Programme Officer, ARTICLE 19